Dufferin high schools caught in ‘strike mode’

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High school teachers in the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) are among many others across the province set to start strike action today (Nov. 12).
Initially, several unions in legal strike position across Ontario, including District 18 of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF), which represents teachers in the UGDSB, were set to refuse performing certain tasks when the clock struck midnight last Wednesday.
That deadline, as instructed down by the provincial office of the OSSTF, was postponed to midnight on Sunday. On Monday morning, however, the provincial office of the OSSTF announced renewed talks with the provincial government have been unsuccessful.
As a result, high school teachers and a number of support staff in the UGDSB began strike sanctions on Monday. Secondary school teachers in Dufferin have been instructed to not attend staff meetings, communicate with parents after hours, respond to emails, and provide students progress reports, among other withdrawals of service.
“We’re at an impasse and we’re going into strike mode in the hopes that will encourage the reaching of the deal,” Mary Gardner, president of District 18 of the OSSTF, said before strike sanctions began Monday. “We’re not withdrawing our services, but we’re striking parts of our collective bargaining agreement.”
The job actions suggested by the OSSTF are in protest of Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act. That piece of legislation, which was passed at Queen’s Park on Sept. 11, gives the provincial government power to dictate teachers’ contracts and bans strikes for at least two years.
Then again, as Gardner explained, District 18’s planned job actions relate to her union not having a local collective bargaining agreement in place. Talks between the local union and UGDSB are ongoing, explained Orangeville trustee and school board chair Bob Borden.
“(A deal) is the intention, but whatever we strike has to be in the context of what the province wants,” Borden said, admitting that’s strained local negotiations. “It isn’t making it easy.”
Under normal circumstances, Gardner would be at the local bargaining table. The upper chain of the OSSTF, however, has assumed bargaining powers for all its member unions across the province.
“The union has decided that to best assist all union members in OSSTF, they need to take over the responsibility for negotiations,” Gardner said. “We need the (UGDSB) to be willing to look at alternatives to what the government has said they will impose, if we don’t impose it on ourselves.”
The fallout in discussions between the OSSTF’s provincial office and the provincial government will likely impact every high school in Dufferin. Borden was holding out hope that wouldn’t be the case.
“The attitude is there on the part of our board, that we want to negotiate,” he said. “I’m just kind of hoping that since we’re still talking that they won’t go radical right away, they will hold off.”
Now that job actions have commenced, Borden could see a number of scenarios could take shape. It could lead to work to rule, which is currently happening at several UGDSB schools, or perhaps even a work stoppage.
“It is part of a spectrum of things that the union could entertain,” Borden said, when asked if the UGDSB was staring down the barrel of a possible teachers strike. “There is a wide range of things that could happen.”
A full-out teachers strike is unlikely though. If teachers were to go beyond those suggested strike sanctions and walk out, Bill 115 gives the province power to send them back to work.
“In a heartbeat, without the legislature being in session, which was not the case prior to Bill 115,” Gardner said. “The simplest way to solve everything, for me, would be if the government were to repeal Bill 115, and allow locals to bargain within the budget, without the restraint of the bill. That is Mary Gardner speaking.”